In the industrial robot, a suitable end effector (hand) corresponding to its work contents is mounted on a tip end of a robot arm and an object to be handled which is held by the end effector is transferred by driving the robot arm. In a production line for completing a product while assembling various kinds of objects to be handled (components) with different forms and dimensions, an industrial robot capable of corresponding to various kinds of objects to be handled is needed.
If a dedicated robot is to be arranged for each kind of object to be handled, a space needed to install the robots increases and a manufacturing cost for the robot also increases. Therefore, there is a request that one robot can correspond to different work contents and objects to be handled.
Therefore, industrial robots capable of automatically changing a hand which is mounted on a tip end of a robot arm as a whole or partially changing the configuration of the hand mounted on the tip end of the robot arm according to forms and dimensions of objects to be handled are proposed (Patent Documents 1, 2).